Japanese Synonyms Introduction
The Problem Have you ever tried to look up three Japanese words in an E/J dictionary, and it basically says they all mean the same thing? How frustrating is that!! Say you're reading some Japanese and you come to a word you don't know (i.e. 負ける）and you look it up in your dictionary, and your dictionary says 'it means lose or fail'. But you already know 3 other Japanese words that mean 'lose or fail', (i.e. 失敗 means fail、失う means fail, and even　敗北 means fail） so you get aggravated. Why so many words? Do they really mean the same exact thing??! I think that's a pretty common experience that people have when reading or learning Japanese. (or English, for that matter!) The Solution You go to the wiki and type in the word you're looking for　（either the English 'lose' or the Japanese 負ける）　and then you'd be linked to a page that has all the 'lose' words together, like so: : 負ける：まける： lose a game or fight or struggle. : 参った：まいった： (spoken aloud) to say uncle. "no mas!" : 敗北：はいぼく： a loss of a game or war (noun) : 失敗: any failure! test, your plan fails, no one comes to your party, your business goes bankrupt. : 失う: to miss out on something (but not because of an opponent). Like you slept too late and missed your TV show. : 不合格: unacceptable! (used with schoolwork, but also work reviews, or 'this workmanship is unacceptable' or 'Son your room is not acceptably clean.' : 落第 ： らくだい： to fail a test In other words, the page explains how the words are different - emphasizing specific situations in which a Japanese person would use one word as opposed to the others: Misc. Symbols There are two symbols you'll see often here, next to a Japanese word: '$$$' and '???' : '$$$' means "this word is the most useful, general synonym. Use this if in doubt." : '???' means "For God's sake, someone please tell me how this word is different than the others in this cluster." I'm hoping that this will be a resource for students of Japanese as well as professional translators. Writing your own pages If you are a badass at Japanese, please create an account, and contribute your own two cents: either by correcting/adding to existing entries, or creating new entries. For contributors, I hope you can focus on idioms - for instance, in English, 'repair' means the same as 'fix,' but you'd never take a broken computer to a 'fix shop,' you'd take it to the 'repair shop.' Also, rather than doing a dictionary-style definition (finding the closest English word), instead let's try to focus on COMPARISON and USAGE; comparing the synonyms to each other and looking for differences in how they are used in everyday life. Several words can mean the exact same thing , but differ only in the context in which they are used. Here is a list of KEY JAPANESE　USAGE POINTS to keep in mind when trying to describe how two words are different; : 1 -WHICH WORD IS MOST COMMONLY USED? (lots of Japanese textbooks will use next-to-useless synonyms just for the hell of it, and I hope this site can tell the students not to bother with certain words) : 2 - WHICH WORD HAS THE WIDE,GENERAL MEANING? WHICH WORD HAS THE NARROW MEANING? : 3 - FORMAL / NEWSPAPER/TV ANNOUNCEMENT (NOT SPOKEN BUT HEARD) / CASUAL / RUDE : 4 - MEN USE IT/ WOMEN USE IT/ OLD PEOPLE / KIDS USE IT : 5 - THE WORD IS USED BY AN UPPER PERSON ADDRESSING A LOWER PERSON OR VICE VERSA. : 6 - IS IT USED WITH ONE SPECIFIC VERB OR IDIOM OR PARTICLE? : 7 - LITERAL OR FIGURATIVE? : 8 - USED WHEN ANGRY OR ARGUING? : 9 - BAD MEANING OR GOOD MEANING? "MINUS IMAGE"? : 10 - IF IT'S AN ADJECTIVE, CAN BE USED ABOUT PEOPLE? OR JUST PLACE? OR FEELING?